Women on an island in the Strait of Magellan resisting capture or death at the hands of Dutch pirates under Olivier van Noort, 1598. Engraving by T. Bonnor, 1768.

Their dead husbands are lying on the beach clutching cudgels in their hands. "On the twenty-fifth of November, they saw two islands near Cape Nassau, on which were some savages, who shook their weapons at them, as in token of defiance; but the Hollanders landing, pursued them to a cave, which they obstinately defended, every man of them dying on the spot; on which the Dutchmen entered the cave, where they found their wives and children, and the poor women expecting immediate death, covered their infants with their bodies, resolving to meet their fate in that posture ; but the Dutchmen only took from them four boys and two girls, whom they carried on board the ships. One of these boys being afterwards taught to speak Dutch, informed them that the largest island was called Castemme, and the other Talcke; that they abounded in penguins, the flesh of which served the inhabitants for food, and the skins for clothing: that they catched ostriches on the neighbouring continent, which they also eat; and that they had no habitations, but those caves underground. …"—Drake. loc. cit.